Well, this is my second thread so I'm getting the hang of the forums now I think. Anyway, I was wondering what everyone is thinking about the Z10's keyboard compared to the physical qwerty's we all know and love.

I'm on a 9780 and love my keyboard, but I was at a Future Shop (went out of my way to go to one) where they had a live demo and I was playing a bit with the virtual little guy, and I gotta say it was amazing. I have always hated touchscreens for typing which is why I never switched from BB, but this was just so easy, smooth, and surprisingly well-sized that I had no issues typing pretty fast almost right away. I'm impressed. Of course, my experience is a bit limited so I want to see what everyone else has to say!

Is anyone going back to a previous model? Has trying out the Z10 reaffirmed you on waiting for the Q10? Has anyone found any quirks or issues?

Let's hear it!

Innovation requires a partnership, the user and the maker have to be willing to change to achieve it.

I am with you there. I am a die-hard QWERTY, physical keyboard person... Refused to switch to anything else because I loved my physical keyboard.
In looking at the videos of the Z10 the keyboard looks to be a good size (I find the SGIII to feel weird when typing; I find the iPhone to be too close together or something, it just feel awkward to me at least). I am pretty much set on getting the Z10 but I will check it out in store on Tuesday, tho I know I will get it hahaha!
Glad to hear of another physical keyboard person liking the virtual keyboard of the Z10!!!

I am with you there. I am a die-hard QWERTY, physical keyboard person... Refused to switch to anything else because I loved my physical keyboard.
In looking at the videos of the Z10 the keyboard looks to be a good size (I find the SGIII to feel weird when typing; I find the iPhone to be too close together or something, it just feel awkward to me at least). I am pretty much set on getting the Z10 but I will check it out in store on Tuesday, tho I know I will get it hahaha!
Glad to hear of another physical keyboard person liking the virtual keyboard of the Z10!!!

The phone really does read your mind. You'll find yourself swiping words up more than finishing typing them. At least I did anyway. I've never liked V-Keyboards until now.

I am a little worried in switching as I use the "i" to zoom in key quite a bit because of my vision. Other than that, playing around with a demo today I think I can make the switch, and will probably like the pinch to zoom feature once I get used to using it.

I was very sceptical about touch screen keyboards on something the size of a phone. I have an iPad and typing oN that is fine but I always found typing on my iPod or my brother's iPhone infuriating. I absolutely adored my 9900 but I was getting sick of the space bar issue. I kept getting double spaces in the middle of sentences on a random basis. So I thought I'd finally give a full touch screen device a go and I must say that I'm mvery impressed with the z10 for typing. The keyboard is quite well spaced/sized and the swiftkey system is excellent in general. I'm able to type rather swiftly indeed. It's still taking a little adjustment but I'm confident that I'll be typing as fast or even faster than I did with my 9900.

Agreed. I am a big fan of the shortcuts that you have access to with the physical keyboard, and I thought that it might be an issue. It's funny though because with BB10 the need, for some of them at least, is eliminated. I guess I will have to not worry about i or o to zoom with this phone either, gainer13.

"typing oN that is fine but I always found typing on my iPod or my brother's iPhone infuriating." Yeah, that is the main reason I never switched to the iPhone... I tried typing on one the other day and now that I tried the Z10 I just wonder how people got through with such a tiny keyboard. I'm glad to hear that going from a 9900 keyboard to the Z10 wasn't an issue... Leads me to think I will be just fine.

Innovation requires a partnership, the user and the maker have to be willing to change to achieve it.

The phone really does read your mind. You'll find yourself swiping words up more than finishing typing them. At least I did anyway. I've never liked V-Keyboards until now.

The demo I tried was pretty good with reading my mind and that's considering that it has been subjected to who knows how many other people's way of typing! I was with a co-worker who actually has refused to get a smart phone and I sold him on BB10, so now he's getting a new phone!

Last edited by DJRikko; 02-03-13 at 07:56 AM.

Innovation requires a partnership, the user and the maker have to be willing to change to achieve it.

An interesting one.. and I think this is one of the areas the Z10 and the platform really shine.

I was always a keyboard BlackBerry fan.. the Storm got me excited and then once I had it, I hated it so much, so thought they had no idea how to make a screen keyboard responsive or work. The touch screen on the Torch was good, but the keyboard was always unusable for my fat fingers, so I never used it.

The Z10 however, I can say without hesitation is the best onscreen keyboard I have used bar none.. the predictive text which is unique and importantly works very well, right down to how the system decides which button you actually want to press.

Type a word it doesn't recognize and it'll prompt you with a red squiggly line under the word. Touch the line and it'll give you some words to select from the dictionary and then you will also see an option to add a new word to the dictionary.

I posted this in another thread. The Z10 keyboard is really, and I mean really good. I've been using Galaxy Nexus for well over a year and hated typing on it with a passion. I would always use my 9900 to type out emails. After only 2 days of owning the Z10, I retired the 9900 permanently. When the Q10 comes out, I'm not entirely sure I'd go back to the physical keyboard.

I had a 9800 previously, so got very comfortable with a physical keyboard. Can never get on with the keyboard on iPhone, not really used my other half's S3, but this. This is b-e-a-u-tiful!
The keyboard on the Z10 is really wonderful! horizontal or vertical, the keyboard is easy to use, has haptic feedback, and once you've gotten use to the predictive text (very different to anything else,) it is real quick and simple to type!
It even promotes the use of proper language over text speak!

Type a word it doesn't recognize and it'll prompt you with a red squiggly line under the word. Touch the line and it'll give you some words to select from the dictionary and then you will also see an option to add a new word to the dictionary.

Yeah but there are lots of words that aren't recognised by auto correct that don't get a red line underneath them, and habe a grey one instead. It's a bit of an obstacle to use swear words :-p. i've figured out how to use add them in settings but in OS 7 I could just add any work through the menu button.

When I had a blackberry and switched to a touch screen, it took a good month to really be able to type just as fast and as normal. Within a week though, I was doing fine. I used an app called swiftkey which really helped me tremendously. In the end, everyone will learn how to use touchscreen just as easy as the keyboard. Just takes a little bit of time.

Well I will be coming from a bold 9900 to the Z10. I vowed NEVER to touch another qwerty keyboard again. Initially when my bold 9900 came, there was a problem with the 'K' key and the adjoining keys around it. Then, it started locking up on me and I had to remove most of my third party apps to solve the problem. Then the alt key fell out........I love blackberry, but for someone like myself who is always on the go and I dont have time to have a phone being down for repairs due to hardware problems. I was only to happy to see the Z10. Will be picking it up next Wednesday.....

This is by far the best feature on the device and totally underrated.
Honestly when you read "It is a great keyboard", you don't get the "wow" effect of actually using it. The experience is a complete shift from what you think it is.

When I had a blackberry and switched to a touch screen, it took a good month to really be able to type just as fast and as normal. Within a week though, I was doing fine. I used an app called swiftkey which really helped me tremendously. In the end, everyone will learn how to use touchscreen just as easy as the keyboard. Just takes a little bit of time.

Well said.

Additionally, Swiftkey is supposedly the engine for the virtual keyboard on Z10. Swiftkey is awesome on its own, but the iteration on the Z1 is really, really nice from what I have seen.

CrackBerry is in no way Affiliated with BlackBerry. We take pride in our unbiased content, however do occasionally receive free products from vendors that we review or discuss. For more info click here.